Kentucky transfer Zvonimir Ivisic made history when he followed head coach John Calipari from Lexington to Fayetteville this past offseason, as “Big Z” became just the second Croatian ever to suit up for the Razorbacks. He joined Davor Rimac, a member of the 1994 national championship-winning team.
The 7-foot-2 Croatian made even more history with his performance on the basketball court in Wednesday night’s 65-49 win over Troy, producing a stat line that had never been recorded in NCAA history.
Ivisic finished with 19 points on 6-of-7 shooting from behind the arc, while also adding five blocks and three steals. He became the first player on record in NCAA history to make six threes, have five blocks, and three steals in a single game.
The performance comes after associate head coach Kenny Payne said in the Troy preview press conference that there was still plenty more to unlock in Ivisic’s game.
“I think he’s gotten better,” Payne said. “By no mean, me personally, am I satisfied with where he is because I think there’s more in there. The goal is to dig it out and to dig it out quickly, for him to understand his role on this team. Really, Z is a freshman. He went to Kentucky last year and he wasn’t really cleared to play ’til late and he didn’t get a chance to get a rhythm into college basketball. So this is his first time.
“He’s learning. He’s learning the responsibility of being in shape, he’s learning the responsibility of bringing a physicality to this and the responsibility of you have to be the last line of defense and create rim protection for this team to be successful. We need him, we love him. He has gotten better, but we got a long way to go.”
At Kentucky last season, Ivisic appeared in just 15 games, including an explosive debut against Georgia where he scored 13 points and added five rebounds and three blocks in just 16 minutes. From there, he was inconsistent, though, playing 10 or fewer minutes in six of the final 14 games last season. He also only scored in double figures three times after his debut last season.
The growth at Arkansas has been obvious, and his role expanded now that he is more familiar with college basketball and more physically built for the game. Through three games he is averaging 20.3 minutes, 11.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game, while shooting an astounding 77.8% from three-point range. Only two other players are above 30% — Adou Thiero at 33.3% and Boogie Fland at 37.5%.
Ivisic started each of the first two games for the Hogs, but he came off the bench Wednesday. The seven three-point attempts against Troy were a career-high for Ivisic, which prompted a question from the media about Cal telling Ivisic to let it fly for the game in the postgame press conference.
“Uhh, no,” Calipari said. “My message to him is you better get in there and rebound and block shots and fight. You can’t do what you did at Baylor, where the guy wedged you out, grabbed the ball and laid it in. It was a one-bucket game and we’re making those kind of (mistakes). Those are just effort plays. I’m fighting him, he’s fighting me, he’s not moving me. I’ll foul him. How ‘bout that? I’ll foul him, make him shoot free throws. You’re not just grabbing a ball and laying it in. Fight.
“So he has the skill and he’s a confident kid. I told him after, I whispered in his ear, ‘I’m proud of you.’ Because for two days, I said, ‘You’re not starting. You don’t deserve it. TB does. So you come off the bench now.’ He responded. That means he’s going to be fine.”
Later, Calipari shared a funny moment between himself and Ivisic during the game.
“Z ran by me and said, ‘Coach, you gotta give me a break’,” Calipari said. “And they threw the ball to him at the three-point line. And what did he do? He shot it. Dude, you just told me you’re exhausted. Why would you shoot a three? But it went in. I don’t say anything. You could shoot a hook from half court, as long as it goes in, I don’t care. It went in. Great shot, kid. Whoo, I like that. Do it again. But I don’t care.”
While Ivisic may still have a long way to go as a fully-rounded basketball player, he is certainly “digging out” what his coaches see in him. Arkansas fans, and the college basketball world, got a glimpse of that with the performance Wednesday.
